Beta 5 rendering issues - Porting fxForceField
by Jaimi McEntire · in Torque 3D Professional · 08/25/2009 (4:32 pm) · 6 replies
I'm porting one of my older resources to T3D - fxForceField (it's kind of cool - you can shoot through it, but you can't walk through it). Actually, I'm rewriting it - I used the "RenderMeshExample" class as a base.
I've created a yellow texture two different ways - one a very dull yellow (for additive blending) and one a bright yellow with alpha. I've created two different materials. In both cases, the materials render green instead of yellow (T3D sees them as yellow - the screenshot has the material editor up). Both versions incorrectly show the sky on top of the partially occluded geometry - for example, the mountains behind the force field have sky on them. The LerpAlpha is a complete mess - it has some strange moire pattern going on, which I've seen before and believe related to fogging (SWAG).
edit: Bad pics removed. Please see the later messages
I've created a yellow texture two different ways - one a very dull yellow (for additive blending) and one a bright yellow with alpha. I've created two different materials. In both cases, the materials render green instead of yellow (T3D sees them as yellow - the screenshot has the material editor up). Both versions incorrectly show the sky on top of the partially occluded geometry - for example, the mountains behind the force field have sky on them. The LerpAlpha is a complete mess - it has some strange moire pattern going on, which I've seen before and believe related to fogging (SWAG).
edit: Bad pics removed. Please see the later messages
#2
08/25/2009 (7:22 pm)
Thanks, how could I have missed that? I appreciate the response.
#3
I've gone through the code for GroundPlane (which looks like it is setup for materials and translucent rendering) but then I found it doesn't work either if you set a translucent material, so I followed your advice and initialized everything the way tsMesh::InnerRender did, and the result is the same -- nothing renders. :(
If anyone can look and see what I'm doing wrong... I'd appreciate it. :)
08/25/2009 (9:37 pm)
I'm missing something - I just can't get anything to render when I'm using RenderPassManager::RIT_Translucent;I've gone through the code for GroundPlane (which looks like it is setup for materials and translucent rendering) but then I found it doesn't work either if you set a translucent material, so I followed your advice and initialized everything the way tsMesh::InnerRender did, and the result is the same -- nothing renders. :(
If anyone can look and see what I'm doing wrong... I'd appreciate it. :)
bool fxForceField::prepRenderImage( SceneState *state, const U32 stateKey,
const U32 startZone, const bool modifyBaseZoneState)
{
// Do a little prep work if needed
if ( mVertexBuffer.isNull() )
createGeometry();
// Make sure we haven't already been processed by this state
if ( isLastState( state, stateKey ) )
return false;
// Update our state
setLastState(state, stateKey);
// If we are actually rendered then create and submit our RenderInst
if ( state->isObjectRendered( this ) )
{
// Get a handy pointer to our RenderPassmanager
RenderPassManager *renderPass = state->getRenderPass();
// Allocate an MeshRenderInst so that we can submit it to the RenderPassManager
MeshRenderInst *ri = renderPass->allocInst<MeshRenderInst>();
// Set our RenderInst as a standard mesh render
//ri->type = RenderPassManager::RIT_Mesh;
ri->type = RenderPassManager::RIT_Translucent;
ri->translucentSort = true;
// Calculate our sorting point
const Box3F& rBox = getRenderWorldBox();
ri->sortDistSq = rBox.getSqDistanceToPoint( state->getCameraPosition() );
// Set up our transforms
MatrixF objectToWorld = getRenderTransform();
objectToWorld.scale( getScale() );
ri->objectToWorld = renderPass->allocXform( objectToWorld );
ri->worldToCamera = renderPass->allocXform( GFX->getWorldMatrix() );
ri->projection = renderPass->allocXform( GFX->getProjectionMatrix() );
// Let the light manager fill the RIs light vector with the current best lights
LightManager* lm = NULL;
if ( state->getSceneManager() )
{
lm = state->getSceneManager()->getLightManager();
if ( lm && !state->isShadowPass() )
{
lm->setupLights( this, getWorldSphere() );
lm->getBestLights( ri->lights, 8 );
}
}
// Make sure we have an up-to-date backbuffer in case
// our Material would like to make use of it
ri->backBuffTex = GFX->getSfxBackBuffer();
// Set our Material
if ( mMaterialInst )
ri->matInst = mMaterialInst;
else
ri->matInst = MATMGR->getWarningMatInstance();
// Set up our vertex buffer and primitive buffer
ri->vertBuff = &mVertexBuffer;
ri->primBuff = &mPrimitiveBuffer;
ri->prim = renderPass->allocPrim();
ri->prim->type = GFXTriangleList;
ri->prim->minIndex = 0;
ri->prim->startIndex = 0;
ri->prim->numPrimitives = 12;
ri->prim->startVertex = 0;
ri->prim->numVertices = 36;
ri->visibility = 1.0f;
// We sort by the vertex buffer
ri->defaultKey = (U32)ri->vertBuff; // Not 64bit safe!
ri->defaultKey2 = 0;
// Submit our RenderInst to the RenderPassManager
state->getRenderPass()->addInst( ri );
// Give the light manager a chance to reset the lights
if ( lm )
lm->resetLights();
}
return false;
}
#4
My only idea is to get a really simple scene with only your object in it then put a breakpoint when it goes to actually process the render instances ( so there should be only yours or maybe a shadow or sky one ).
I'd put a breakpoint in renderTranslucentMgr.cpp line 180
Either something wrong in the render instance that maybe you can spot there, or, something wrong with the material itself.
08/25/2009 (10:44 pm)
It looks right at first glance...My only idea is to get a really simple scene with only your object in it then put a breakpoint when it goes to actually process the render instances ( so there should be only yours or maybe a shadow or sky one ).
I'd put a breakpoint in renderTranslucentMgr.cpp line 180
Either something wrong in the render instance that maybe you can spot there, or, something wrong with the material itself.
#5
The problem is a bug in RenderTranslucentMgr. Down around line 235, the following line:
Needs to be changed to:
08/26/2009 (12:40 am)
@James - Thanks, you put me on the right track. The problem is a bug in RenderTranslucentMgr. Down around line 235, the following line:
GFX->drawPrimitive( passRI->primBuffIndex );
Needs to be changed to:
// draw it
if ( passRI->prim )
GFX->drawPrimitive( *passRI->prim );
else
GFX->drawPrimitive( passRI->primBuffIndex );
#6
Here is fxForceField in action:
Update: T3D is pretty cool - Here is fxForceField with a non-translucent material. You could actually build stuff out of it, and turn it on and off on the fly. I'm thinking about adding different primitive types - cylinder, sphere, cone, etc.
08/26/2009 (1:25 am)
One more note - Glow doesn't work on translucent meshes. However, this is easy to fix. In renderBinManager.h, change the getMaterial function to look like this:/// Utility function, gets the material from the RenderInst if available, otherwise, return NULL
inline BaseMatInstance* RenderBinManager::getMaterial(RenderInst* inst) const
{
if (inst->type == RenderPassManager::RIT_Mesh || inst->type == RenderPassManager::RIT_Interior || inst->type == RenderPassManager::RIT_Translucent)
return static_cast<MeshRenderInst*>(inst)->matInst;
return NULL;
}Here is fxForceField in action:
Update: T3D is pretty cool - Here is fxForceField with a non-translucent material. You could actually build stuff out of it, and turn it on and off on the fly. I'm thinking about adding different primitive types - cylinder, sphere, cone, etc.
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